Developing Your Research Career: Academia and Activism - Explorations in Structure and Agency
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
No booking required
Academia and Activism - Explorations in Structure and Agency
Birkbeck Institute for Social Research (BISR) Developing Your Research Career Seminar
Speaker: Dr Paul Watt, Birkbeck, University of London
Chair: Dr Melissa Butcher, Birkbeck, University of London
This workshop is primarily for Birkbeck PhD students and academic staff but is open to the public - Book your place
Dr Paul Watt reflects on the respective roles of academic and activist in the context of his own research and activism on housing which he has been undertaking for 20 years. In this he also considers how his work relates to theoretical issues of structure and agency particularly in relation to class structure and class politics. He illustrates his talk with specific examples of academic/activist interfaces, including a discussion of the issues raised by his forthcoming paper in the journal 'City' 'A Nomadic War Machine in the Metropolis: En/Countering London's 21stCentury Housing Crisis with Focus E15'.
Paul Watt is Reader in Urban Studies in the Department of Geography, Environment and Development Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. His research focusses on social and spatial inequalities in cities and suburbs. Areas of interest include social rental housing, urban regeneration, the 2012 Olympic Games and regeneration in London, suburbia and suburbanization. Paul is co-author (with Tim Butler) of Understanding Social Inequality (Sage, 2007), and co-editor (with Peer Smets) of Mobilities and Neighbourhood Belonging in Cities and Suburbs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). He has published in various journals including International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Studies, City, Sociology and Visual Studies. He is on the editorial board of City and is Board Member of the Research Committee on Sociology of Urban and Regional Development (RC21), International Sociological Association. Forthcoming publications include co-editorship (with Anna Minton) of a Special Feature in City on 'London's Housing Crisis and its Activisms', and two co-edited books: Urban Renewal and Social Housing: A Cross-National Perspective (with Peer Smets, Emerald), and London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City: A Hollow Legacy? (with Phil Cohen, Palgrave Macmillan).
Developing Your Research Career is a series of lunchtime seminars and workshops organised by the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research to enhance the research skills and contribute to the career development of social researchers at Birkbeck. We particularly welcome PhD students and early career researchers, both post-doctoral research fellows and lecturers. However, academics at all career stages who are interested are also encouraged to attend, both to learn themselves and to share their experiences and knowledge with colleagues and postgraduate students.
Contact name:
Madisson Brown
Contact phone:
0207 631 6612